Amnesty International Urges FIFA And UEFA To Suspend Israel's Football Association From Tournaments

Israel illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/Zachi Evenor)

Amnesty International sent a FIFA world football parent letter and European football association UEFA on Wednesday urging them to suspend the Israeli Football Association (IFA) from the tournament of the two bodies, until the association banned clubs based in illegal colonies in the Palestinian Occupied Territories (OPT) from continuing to play in Israeli football leagues.

"As Israel's national football team prepares for World Cup qualifiers against Norway and Italy, Israel continues to commit genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip," Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard said, quoted from WAFA Oct. 2.

"More than 800 athletes, players, and sports officials are among the more than 65,000 people who have been killed by Israeli forces in a deliberate campaign to destroy, evacuate by force, and leave civilians starving," he explained.

At the same time, he continued, Israel was brutally expanding its illegal colony and legitimizing illegal posts in the West Bank as part of its illegal occupation of the Palestinian Territories.

He added that it was a shame IFA still allowed clubs from these colonies to continue playing in their leagues, after being repeatedly warned for more than a decade.

There are at least six settlement-based clubs in the occupied Palestinian Territories that currently play in Israeli leagues. This violates the international law and FIFA statutes themselves.

To note, Article 64.2 of the FIFA statutes stated, "The association of members and their clubs cannot play in other member associations without the association's consent."